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Sunday, January 30, 2011

My New Wave quilt top is complete! I used Oh Fransson!'s new wave quilt tutorial featured on her website, and adjusted the number of columns/rows until my top measured 43 inches x 47 inches.

I also purchased the Darlene Zimmerman "Fat Cats" ruler, as Elizabeth mentioned instead of the plastic template. I found the ruler at Joann's, and when I purchased it, it was 50% off, but even with a 40% coupon, I dont think the ruler is more than $7 or $8.

I wasn't originally planning on using the brown fabric on the top and bottom, but I realized as I started piecing the columns together, that my "guesstimate" measurements were falling short of how big I wanted this quilt to be. In order to keep the symmetry, I added a brown row to both the top and bottom.

I was able to get outside today while there was still some daylight left and snap these pictures, usually by the time I come home from work and get to a picture taking point, the sun has long ago set.

Hopefully the quilt backs will come together in the next few days, so I can start quilting this and the mini stacked coins quilt. I'm thinking one of these quilts will feature some loopy quilting for a change of pace! Stay tuned!!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I was in need of a little mini project to work on this evening, as I just did not feel like working on one of the quilts I have in various stages of completedness. The holder that I made for my nook e-reader a while back has seen better days, and I found out my mom is getting a nook for her birthday in a few weeks, so I figured I'd whip up some new holders for us both.

Thursday night I had the chance to meet Cindy, Amy, Priscilla and Corley of our Greensburg Modern Quilt Guild, were still a new little guild, but the ladies are just great! Amy brought along some of her e-reader covers that she had made, and I really liked that she made them more like a sleeve with a tab and a snap, than the holder I had previously made. I know Amy has an etsy store, and I wish I could remember her store name to link up to her here! I used her design as my inspiration to create the sleeves below.

My mom's favorite color is yellow, so I dug into my Central Park FQ bundle and cut some strips of the yellow fabrics and attempted Kati from From the Blue Chair'sdiamond tutorial, I had so-so results (which I'm 100% sure was operator error!), but a few things made me not crazy about the outcome, 1. not enough variation in fabric color and pattern, and 2. I didn't have enough space to really let this design play out. I can't say I'll be making a diamond quilt anytime soon like Kati is, but I can certainly see giving this another go in a pillow design or mini quilt!

Since I wasn't overly thrilled with my first attempt at making the sleeve (there was also a minor fit issue that needed correcting), I put together a second sleeve with a little bigger measurements and a simple strip design. I used velcro to secure the flap, and just added some decorative buttons to cover my stitches from sewing the velco on the tab.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I keep adding to the WIPs I have going, yet, I don't seem to be finishing much! I'll just hit the highlights here...

As for something super new, I started cutting the pieces for the second baby boy comissioned quilt I committed myself to and have the blocks arranged on my design wall:

This quilt should end up around 45 inches x 45 inches(ish) when all is said and done. I've been wanting to use the Alexander Henry 2D Zoo for some time now in a quilt, and I am loving how these colors work together

My psiquilt's postage stamp quilt along quilt has sort of been tabled for the time being. I have about half of the blocks assembled, there really is no rush to finish this one just now, as I won't need it (it's a gift) until at least May.

I actually just ordered the fabric for the quilt back today from Aunt Beas Fabric, unfortunately the shop is going out of business, but this means that all the fabric in the shop is 30% off, woohoo for It's a Hoot yardage at 30% off! Be sure to pop over and check out the selection.

Quilt tops in need of quilting:

this will get quilted...soon. I still need to put a backing together for it, but I'll get to it. Soon.

Finish of the week:

I did have one finish this week, albeit small, a finish none the less! This fun little set of potholders and kitchen dish towel will be on its way to its new home this weekend.

Other projects in the works:

1. DQS 10- still in the planning stages

2. Mug Rug Swap- the little bugger just needs some binding!

3. 3x6 bee blocks- 1 down, 5 to go...

Be sure to head over the Freshly Pieced and check out all the WIPs this week!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Because I don't have nearly enough WIPs I could be working on finishing...I started a new baby quilt! I was contacted to make two commissioned baby boy quilts, so those seemed to have jumped to the top of the to do list.

This is the first of the two quilts, I saw this quilt over at the Moda Bake shop and had been wanting to try this style of a kind of mini stacked coins quilt for a while, so I changed the amount of stacks and altered the size to a baby quilt size.

I used a few prints from Robert Kaufman's Play Day, a few Kona solids and few scraps of prints I had laying around that coordinated well and then sashed them with Kona white.

I think baby quilts are my favorite size to make. They come together so quickly, are super easy to baste, and quilting is no problem at all. Of course I love tackling a bigger project as well, but its nice to see the finished product come together so quickly and easily.

I think I am going to start on the second quilt top, I'm thinking of using Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson!'s New Wave quilt pattern and some Alexander Henry 2D Zoo with coordinating prints before moving on to the backing, basting and quilting. Check back soon!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

I'm participating in this round of the Potholder Pass swap, and this round the theme is monotone. My secret swap partner picked grey as their color of choice. I have to admit, at first I was not super excited about making potholders only in shades of grey, but I must say, after seeing them come together, I almost want to keep them for myself!

I made a two coordinating string X blocks, and my finished potholders measure appx 8 inches square. I used a layer of the insulated batting and a layer of regular batting on the front part. I have never used insulated batting before, and while I didn't have any problems in the construction stage, it's a little strange in that the potholder almost "crackles" (sounds kind of like wrinkling a plastic shopping bag) when you move it around, but it did quilt quite nicely.

Here's a pic of the back portion with the cut out to insert your hand and a close up of the quilting on the back. Ever since I had seen Kati from from the blue chair's lattice quilt quilting, I had been wanting to try some "loopy" quilting, and I thought, why not here? I'm really digging this style of free motion quilting, and can't wait to use it on a bigger project!

I wanted to make a little something extra to send along with my potholders, so when I came across this tutorial from pin.sew.press for a "stay put kitchen towel" I knew it would be perfect.

This was so super quick and easy to put together, and will definitly keep those kitchen towels from falling on the floor! I will definitly be making more of these in the future for my own kitchen.

I hope my secret swap partner likes their goodies, I certainly had fun making them!

Friday, January 21, 2011

I've cut up my strip sets that consist of It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda and Bella Solids in Snow into what seem like a gazillion 2 1/2 inch by 10 1/2 inch strips and are slowly by surely sewing them into 10 1/2 inch square blocks:

I have 25 of the 48 blocks completed, and I just had to clear off my design wall to put these up to see the progress, this is a completely random arrangement, and I'm only about half way done constructing my blocks!

The completed quilt is supposed to measure 60 x 80, but I'm not sure that the quilt along is allowing for a pieced back, and I know I want to save at least one row of "postage stamps" to piece into the backing, so the finished size is TBD. This is quickly outgrowing my design wall, so stay tuned for more progress!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

It's Wednesday, and that means its time to share the current works in progress for the week! I actually have quite a few things that are in various stages of complete-ness...this is a new phenomenon for me, I am typically a "start one project and see it through to the end" kind of gal, but I'm finding myself with quite a few things going on. It's making me a little stressed, I don't like leaving things unfinished, but it is nice to be able to bounce from one project to the next.

First and formost is my very beginning planning stages of my doll quilt for DQS10. These are just a few ideas that have popped into my head.

My partner is a fan of modern fabrics, so I'm thinking of cutting into my Central Park fabric, plus a few other goodies in blues, greens, yellows and oranges with some neutral solids (grey/white perhaps?) mixed in.

As for design ideas:

A mini strings quilt, I'm picturing it with white as the solid center stripe, and then trying to keep each "diamond" in one color. I'm thinking each individual block would be along the lines of 3" with teeny tiny strips...

Or a circle block mini quilt, I'm thinking of doing each quarter of the circle in a different print of one color, agin using the above colors and I was thinking of doing the backgrounds of the blocks in Kona Ash, Charcoal and White. Maybe??

Or some pieced hexies in some sort of color patterns? Or none of the above. If you were my partner, which would you like??

My next WIP is Rachel from psiquilt's postage stamp quilt along. So far I have my strip sets sewn together...16 all together, whew! For our next directions, we are to cut these strip sets into 2 1/2 inch strips and sew them together into 48 blocks for next week. Eek! I'd really like to keep up with this quilt along, but I'm not so sure I'll be able to get all the blocks completed by then.

I am really liking how the colors all came together, this will sure be one vibrant quilt!

Lastly for this week is the beginning stages of planning my potholders for the potholder pass. Again the theme is monotone, and my partner picked grey. I dug through my stash, and added a few greys I picked up at my LQS, and these are the fabrics I'm thinking of working with:

I'm really torn about the binding. I think at this point I'm leaning towards repeating the blue and white cris cross fabric that I used in the mug rug...I just cant seem to find anythign that I absolutely love though. I certainly have time. I'll just sit and admire it for a while until I figure something out!

Well I certainly have enough to keep me busy this week, and hopefully next week there will be more "completed projects" to show!

Be sure to head over to Freshly Pieced and check out all the awesome WIPs!!

Monday, January 17, 2011

As I've mentioned previously, I'm participating in a few upcomming swaps and thought I'd share a few of the mosaics I've made to let my swap partners get to know me a little bit better!

I was lucky enought to be selected to participate in Doll Quilt Swap 10, and as I am hard at work deciding what to make for my partner, I'm sure that he/she is doing the same for me! As I've certainly been "blog stalking" my partner, I thought I'd put a pic of the mosaic I created for DQS 10 on my blog to share

Saturday, January 15, 2011

So as I was perusing my LQS today, looking for *only* a few fat quarters of grey fabric, for my potholders I'm making for the potholder pass, I spied a fat quarter bundle of Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda...it was like a reflex, before I knew it, the fat quarter bundle was in my hands, and the internal debate began. No, I do not NEED this fabric, but just look at it! In the end I couldn't resist, and this glorious stack of fabulous fabrics came home to live with me.

I rationalized that I know I will have a few baby quilts to make in the next few months, and this fabric would be great!

Thank you everyone for your super kind words about my mug rug! I did as I said, left it for the night, and when I went back to it this morning, I decided that I really liked it, and its simplicity, and more importantly I think my partner will like it.

Heres a picture of the back

Once I had the front and back complete, I layered it together with my batting, and pulled out my basting spray to hold things together. Well, apparently I was a little overly ambitious with the basting spray application, because it seeped through in a few areas on the linen and left some dark spots :(

You can see the marks a little more in the above pictures. I was going to just abandon the project and start over right then, but I decided to use this as a practice piece to figure out how I want to quilt it (I'm still not 100% sure...) and I figure I'll keep this for me! I've also decided to swap out the green on the front with an some Amy Butler Sunspots I found in my scrap bin...I think it blends a little better anyways.

So...lesson learned. Be frugal with the basting spray.

Third bit of news of the day, a bee mate of mine Alison, from Little Island Quilting nominated me and my blog for a second Liebster award! We both participate in the Simply Strings bee, be sure to stop over to her blog and see what she's up to!

Again, this is an award for the crafty blogging "little guys" with less than 300 followers. Whats so cool about this award, is that you get to pay it forward!

I know that Kati, from From the Blue Chair nominated me earlier this week, but I have to mention her here! She always has something fresh and modern that shes working on, and her lattice quilt tutorial is certainly worth checking out!

Lee at FreshlyPieced also has an awesome blog, and hosts a weekly WIP Wednesday party, to share whats on your design wall or in the works for the week, be sure to check her out, and pop over to WIP Wednesday to share your WIPs!

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All content including photos, text and tutorials on this site are property of Jessica Kelly unless otherwise noted. You do not need my permission to use my photos, quote what I say or talk about what I do, but please, pretty please credit me where appropriate by linking back to this blog. It's perfectly fine to sell individual items you made based on my designs, tutorials or patterns, but please do not reproduce or sell the patterns or tutorials themselves. Use of my photos for commercial purposes is not permitted. Thanks!